SOU’WESTER EVENTS!
Discover what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!
Botanical printing, or Eco-Printing, is a way to make clear images of leaves, like portraits of plants. In this workshop we will print leaves onto cloth and paper to create table runners, and a leaf printed paper for drawing treasure maps on. This class is great taken in conjunction with the other dye workshops, but not required. Materials fee for this workshop is $30.
Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.
- Adult/Youth Saturday Workshop (under 12 accompanied by an adult)
- $50 + materials fee
- Sign up for all Natural Dye Saturday Workshops (four total) 25% off
- *Scholarships Available
The Hackles: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
“We’re processing a lot of things going on in our world right now,” reflects Kati Claborn during a respite from touring. Along with her partner Luke Ydstie, Claborn is striving to make sense of the present by looking to the past in The Hackles’ upcoming album, A Dobtrich Did As A Dobritch Should, out on Jealous Butcher Records on November 8, 2019. “We’re looking at the big picture through individual lives,” says Claborn. In an era rife with discord, The Hackles are using melodic, shimmering indie folk to chronicle means of control and autonomy through idiosyncratic narratives.
Ydstie and Claborn first met in Portland in the mid-2000s after Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski of Blind Pilot recruited additional band members to flesh out the band. Still members of Blind Pilot today, Ydstie and Claborn first met at these initial band practices, and now live in Astoria, Oregon with their five-year-old daughter. After discovering how well each of their creative processes’ enrich one another’s, Ydstie and Claborn decided to form their own musical project. “I think one of the reasons why it’s so successful when Luke and I write together is that we feel very safe and open,” says Claborn. “Both of us feel like we can throw out any idea and it’s okay. We can try anything.” Co-producer Adam Selzer expands this environment of experimentation. “Going into the mixing process, we gave Adam free reign to do whatever he wanted, and he made a lot of interesting mixing choices and added effects that had a huge effect on how the album turned out.”
Though The Hackles’ upcoming record title might at first seem imbued in mystery, the eccentric name is a nod to the life and death of 20th century Bulgarian circus impresario, Al Dobritch, who appears most markedly in “And The Show Goes On.” The chief producer of famed Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas, Dobritch made a name for himself after escaping World War II and settling in America, eventually rubbing elbows with celebrities and marrying film star Rusty Allen. His gilded life came to a dark end when he was charged with kidnapping and, soon after, jumped to his death on the Las Vegas strip. “Dobritch went through so many crazy things in his life,” says Claborn, “And though he was able to persevere and create this incredible life, it goes to show that at the end, there are sometimes things you can’t control.”
The interwoven notions of predestined fate, as well as the hopeful antithesis of regaining power over one’s personal circumstances, stream throughout The Hackles’ upcoming release, complemented by the album’s serene sound. The duo’s propensity for glowing chords shines, though it soon becomes apparent that the expert delicacy of the couple’s guitar work only barely contains the graceful, mounting power prevalent in the meeting of Claborn and Ydstie’s voices. Similar to the tug-of-war stories that Claborn and Ydstie portray, the dynamism of the duo’s vocals never overpowers the tranquility of the chords below. Instead, both strengths support and enhance one another. “There’s a thread going through the album about the things that control us in our lives and the things that we’re able to take back,” surmises Claborn, “It’s about the impact of inevitability, the webs you can weave, and the webs that weave you.”
In this workshop students will investigate and observe natural specimens to create detailed nature-based artworks. Scientific specimens may include animal skulls, insects, plant materials, and other natural materials. Students will work in pencil and pen with options to include ink and watercolor media. This program teaches various art making techniques while encouraging observational skills, critical thinking, literacy, spatial awareness, and informing on natural sciences. Materials fee for this workshop is $3.
Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.
- Youth After-School Program Ages 7-11
- T, W, Th 3:30-5:30 with possible transportation from LB Elementary
- $75/week + materials fee
- 20% off when you sign up for all After-School Workshops!
- Sibling discount an additional 10% off.
- *Scholarships Available
In this workshop students will investigate and observe natural specimens to create detailed nature-based artworks. Scientific specimens may include animal skulls, insects, plant materials, and other natural materials. Students will work in pencil and pen with options to include ink and watercolor media. This program teaches various art making techniques while encouraging observational skills, critical thinking, literacy, spatial awareness, and informing on natural sciences. Materials fee for this workshop is $3
Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.
- Adult/Youth Saturday Workshop (under 12 accompanied by an adult)
- $50 + materials fee
- *Scholarships Available
Explore all things underwater in this fun, adaptable clay workshop! Learn basic ceramic hand-building skills while exploring underwater themes! Participants will create their pieces using pinch, coil, slab, and pebble styles of hand-building. Students will also experiment with texture tools, both nature-made and human-made, to create different effects in their clay work. This program informs on natural sciences, encourages special awareness, and builds kinesthetic skills. Materials fee for this workshop is $5
Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.
- Youth After-School Program Ages 7-11
- T, W, Th 3:30-5:30 with possible transportation from LB Elementary
- $75/week + materials fee
- 20% off when you sign up for all After-School Workshops!
- Sibling discount an additional 10% off.
- *Scholarships Available
Join us in welcoming our newest art installation. Elijah Jensen-Lindsey is a self-taught, multi-media artist who currently resides in Nampa, Idaho. His career as a carpenter and craftsman informs his esoteric methodology, and has afforded him distinct opportunities within the intersection of visual art and the built, living environment. Working alongside world-renowned artist Theaster Gates, Jensen-Lindsey played an active role in the renovation of an after-school arts program in St. Louis in 2013. A recipient of grants from The Idaho Commission on the Arts and Boise Weekly, he has shown his artwork in Boise; Reno, Nevada; Brooklyn, New York; and St. Louis, Missouri.
He was awarded top prize in the 2020 Idaho Triennial.
As a musician, Jensen-Lindsey engages with the traditions of folk, pop and noise music as a means of exploring the beautiful terrains of the written and spoken word.
He lives with a Siamese cat named Hummingbird, and a fox squirrel named Juniper.
His band, ‘With Child’ will perform @ 6pm.
Explore all things underwater in this fun, adaptable clay workshop! Learn basic ceramic hand-building skills while exploring underwater themes! Participants will create their pieces using pinch, coil, slab, and pebble styles of hand-building. Students will also experiment with texture tools, both nature-made and human-made, to create different effects in their clay work. This program informs on natural sciences, encourages special awareness, and builds kinesthetic skills. Materials fee for this workshop is $5
Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.
- Adult/Youth Saturday Workshop (under 12 accompanied by an adult)
- $50 + materials fee
- *Scholarships Available
Johnny Franco + Mike Coykendall : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Johnny Franco is a Brazilian rock n’ roll marauder who now resides in Portland, and who crafts inventive spaghetti western/folk-rock stompers. Armed with propulsive, spindly guitars, Dylanesque vocals, and adventurous vibes, Franco recently signed to label Blanket Fort.
“A sly blender of old-school country & western and modern Americana, “Treated Like Grass” thrives on its rollicking rhythms and catchy, twangy melodies” – Impose Magazine
Veteran songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Coykendall has been amazingly prolific over the last three decades or so. Currently most well known for his duties as a sideman, producer, and recordist via his work with M Ward, Blitzen Trapper, She & Him, Annalisa Tornfelt, & Tin Hat Trio, to name a few, Coykendall has been making his own unique outsider records since the mid ’80s.
In this workshop we will be gathering natural materials to create nature crowns, mandalas and hanging chimes. We will focus on using our imagination and creativity to construct whimsical pieces from materials we see everyday.
Register here then follow the link in the registration confirmation to submit payment.
- Youth After-School Program Ages 7-11
- T, W, Th 3:30-5:30 with possible transportation from LB Elementary
- $75/week + materials fee
- 20% off when you sign up for all After-School Workshops!
- Sibling discount an additional 10% off.
- *Scholarships Available